Cape Reinga/Matamata

Our time up north near Cape Reinga made some of my best memories of the trip.  Our campsite was stunningly beautiful.  Our tents were set up on a hill overlooking a massive inlet in a giant S-shape.  With cliffs surrounding us, it was almost as if we had this massive private beach to ourselves.  There were very few other people there.

The beach we camped on just south of Cape Reinga

One of the other things that made it amazing was a football.  Yes, a good ol’ american pigskin.  We figured that if we were going to be driving around the country for a month, it’d be nice to have a football or a baseball or something to throw around.  Unfortunately, football is not a sport the Kiwis are familiar with, unless you’re referring to the sport (soccer) that every American child plays and quits before age 10.  As the comedian Daniel Tosh said, “football is played by 300 pound behemoths manhandling each other for eight seconds at a time, not 150 pound fairies lightly jogging for three hours.  Or however long your game is.”  Luckily, at some random sporting goods store, we encountered a Nike football.

The Englishman we were traveling with, Colin, wanted to learn how to play, so we spent some time teaching him how to throw a ball.  He eventually got pretty good at it, although his forte was absolutely place-kicking, as he is a very solid soccer player.  Now when you put the competitiveness and egos of myself, Blove, Colin and Veber together, add football and a little beer, what do you get?  Epic beach football game.  Me and Veber vs. Colin and Blove.

To win, a team had to score 52 points.  The game started off with the good guys jumping out to a 21 point lead.  Out of nowhere, the bad guys score 27 unanswered points.  After a couple more drives, the score stood 48 - 36 in favor of the bad guys.  We begin a drive at the 10 and fumble just past mid-field.  Fumble recovered by the bad guys.  Colin ran a fly route and Blove hit him in stride.  Colin tripped up in the sand upon the completion of the pass and Veber downed him at the 10 for first and goal.  First play, Veber blocks a pass right at the line of scrimmage from his tremendous height advantage over Colin.  Second play: Blove ran a quick out but the ball was thrown a little ahead of him and he made the dive in perfect timing with his defender, yours truly.  I got a hand on it; pass broken up.  You stay away from my goal line.  Blove then took the job of QB and threw a bullet to Colin in the endzone.  Unfortunately, the Englishman couldn’t hold on, and the ball slipped through his fingers (although to his credit, it was a difficult catch to make).  After a 4th down sack, Veber and I took over.

We switched to a West-coast offense and drove down the field for a quick score.  Go for two.  I loft up a pass in the corner and Veber made a spectacular one-handed catch over Blove.  48-44.  Next possession we forced a three-and-out.  Blove had an amazing punt and drove the ball out of the endzone.  We have the potential game winning drive on the 20.  Blove played some exceptional pass coverage and we found ourselves 4th and 5 on our own 45.  I ran a quick 5-and-out and Veber hit me right between the numbers for a first down.  One more solid long-yardage completion later we found ourselves at the goal line.  After a nifty piece of running by both QB and WR, Veber hit me in the endzone for the TD; 50-48 in favor of the good guys.  We decided to go for 2 and the win (obviously).  Veber threw a bullet right at (what would be) the press-box side of the endzone, perfectly out of the reach of the defender, Blove.  I made a diving grab, ensuring to get a foot down in-bounds, BOOM.  After further review, the sand provided ‘incontrovertible visual evidence’ that I had, in fact, landed in the endzone.  And so the grueling, 95 degree, sun-scorching, sandy, sweaty game came to an end.

Blove teaching Colin to placekick

The losers.

WINNERS

After the game, we headed straight into the ocean for a little cool-down.  The water was freezing cold, so needless to say, we cooled down pretty quickly.  We then engaged in a series of bets on who could body surf the furthest in the icy water.  Blove and I tied, which neither of us was happy about, but Veber lost so he owed a few rounds of beer.  That’s usually how our betting goes, anyway.  It keeps things simple.

“Yo dude, you wanna make this interesting?”
“Sure.  Cash or beer?”

The next day we headed out to Cape Reinga, where the Pacific and Tasman sea meet.  From there we could see some stunning views, including 90-mile beach, impressive cliffs, and crashing waves.

Some of the steep bluffs on Cape Reinga

Veber overlooking the cliffs out to the sea

In order to keep our backpacks lighter and smaller, we opted for a sleeping bag liner, rather than an actual sleeping bag.  They collapse to about the size of a large beer can and do actually provide warmth.  Up until NZ, we had used them in hostels where we had to pay for sheets or else used them in lieu of sheets when staying in a hostel of questionable cleanliness.  In NZ, this turned out to be quite a mistake.  The temperature dropped drastically at night.  I slept in a t-shirt, a long-sleeve t-shirt, a sweater, winter hat, long pants, thick socks, and gloves, burrowed in my very thin bag liner, and all on top of my Thermarest.  I spent the entire night shivering, sleeping what felt like moments at a time, waking up to warm up some numb part of my body, then trying to go back to sleep.  Eventually around 5-5:30 AM, the temperature would warm up enough to sleep.  Then around 7 the sun would be shining directly on the U.S.S. Topenga, turning it into a damn sauna.  At this point, I would have to strip down to my boxers, lest I sweat through everything.  I then usually got another 30 minutes of sleep before the heat was unbearable and I’d emerge from the tent to start the day.  After Cape Reinga (which I firmly believe were the coldest nights I’ve ever endured in my life), we all went out and got sleeping bags.  I’m not sure if things warmed up as we headed south, or if the cheapo sleeping bag provided unbelievable warmth, but I slept comfortably for the rest of my nights in NZ.

After Cape Reinga, we headed out to Matamata, where Lord of the Rings was filmed.  They are currently set to film The Hobbit on the same location, so all of Hobbiton and Bag-End had been re-built for the film.  We toured the set for a bit and took a bunch of photos.  I’d post them, but I’m pretty sure I’d be violating some kind of copyright law.  Since I don’t want to get sued by New Line/whoever is making it (I can’t recall of the top of my head), I won’t post any of those photos.  But having said that, it seems strange that they’d let us on set to tour it and take photos in the first place. We did get a free sheep-shearing show though. Awesome!!!!!1!!1!1!

The next day, our Norwegian travel companion, Aurora, informed us that she would no longer be traveling with us.  Her time on NZ was a bit more limited than ours was, so she decided to go solo and see what she wanted to in her remaining time.  So we had to press on in our Homer van, now only carrying four. The last thing we all did together was going to a redwood forest before dropping Aurora off.

Redwoods

Me and Aurora

More to come...

New Zealand - Auckland to Cape Reinga

Welcome to my new location!  I got fed up with Tumblr, so I moved to blogger.  It's a much better and easier way for me to do things.  Not to mention, it's easier for me to upload photos, so this blog will look a whole lot better.

Having said that, I apologize for my lack of posting.  I've been crunching to get my law school applications in on time, and thought that if I were writing for the blog, I should probably be doing application work instead.  Now that the applications are nearing completion, it's time to catch everyone up!  I spent a month in New Zealand which was absolutely incredible.  I'm now sitting next to a fish market in Bangkok where I am actually picking up some wifi.

So, here's how New Zealand was:

We spent a couple of days in Auckland waiting for our friend Colin to arrive.  Once he did, we rented a minivan and prepared to head out.  The night before we were set to depart, we met a Norwegian girl named Aurora in the lobby of our hostel.  She accompanied us on a barcrawl and after a few drinks, decided she would be our fifth member for the trip.  Seeing as New Zealand was very expensive, we were thrilled to have her join to help us pay for food/gas/blah blah.

We rolled out of bed the next day, and Colin and I headed out to pick up our minivan.  Upon arrival, we were told we were going to be spending the next month driving around in ‘The Homer’

It took much longer than expected to get everything sorted out, so by the time we picked up Blove, Veber, and Aurora from our hostel, picked up food and other last-minute supplies, the sun was beginning to set.  So our hopes to get out on the road during the day quickly vanished.  It was about this time that we realized that the van would not sleep 5 people.  As a matter of fact, it would barely sleep one.  We stopped at a shopping area and spread out to find a tent.  Colin and I found a blue and green piece of crap tent that actually ended up working out well.  The other three returned with a 1940’s era French Army tent they got on discount at a surplus store.

HMS Aurora on the Left, USS Topenga on the right

We drove out with a road map and a brochure saying where campsites were located.  After driving for a bit, we ended up in the Bay of Islands.  The main hut at the entrance to the campsite was closed and the lights were off.  The gate for our van to enter was closed.  We had no idea what to do or where to go.  Having a lack of options and exhausted from the drive, we parked out van in front of the gate and set up two tents on the grassy side opposite.  We then had a couple of beers, lit a couple of tiki torches, and drew straws for who slept where.  Blove and I got the blue and green POS that was nicknamed ‘U.S.S. Topenga,’ Colin and Aurora slept in the Army tent, which henceforth was known as the ‘H.M.S. Aurora,’ and Veber slept in the Homer.  I stayed awake for a while looking at the stars, which were as brilliant as I’ve ever seen them.  Unfortunately, there was never a night with a sky quite like that first night again.  It was amazing again when we were in Fjordland National Park, but it was never as clear and cloudless as that first night.  

We awoke the next day to find ourselves on a gorgeous beach with small mountains surrounding us.  The Dept. of Conservation (DOC) rangers that ran the campsite were very nice, and did not mind us blocking the gateway.  So, wanting to stay another day to explore the area, we moved to a better area of the campsite, right on the water, and set the tents back up.

Veber and I went on a hike to explore the area, while the others entertained themselves swimming or messing around.  Here are some of the photos from our hike:

The Bay of Islands

View to the Pacific Ocean

That night, we had a proper dinner cooked by Brian Love and Brian Veber, which henceforth became known as ‘B & B Productions.’  For the rest of the trip, Colin and I did the navigating and driving, and B & B cooked the meals

B&B are doin' the cooking, while I'm in the foreground, loving my job

The amazing sunset we got from our campsite just after dinner

We spent the next few days in that Bay of Islands area, mostly in Kerikeri and Russell, changing campsites a few times and enjoying our honeymoon-like phase of beginning this fantastic road trip.

Afterwards, we headed north to a campsite near Cape Reinga, on the northern tip of the North Island of New Zealand.  I’ll continue my New Zealand story with a post soon...